Why it's ridiculous to script your first 17 plays..

this is a discussion within the Saints Community Forum; If we kick off and the opposing team drives the ball down and scores, it's 7-0. Then on the first play on offense for us Donte fumbles and they get the ball back and score again. 14-0. We go 3 ...

If we kick off and the opposing team drives the ball down and scores, it's 7-0. Then on the first play on offense for us Donte fumbles and they get the ball back and score again. 14-0. We go 3 and out on our next offensive series and the opposing team gets the ball back and scores. We're down 21-0. We've only run four of the scripted 17 plays. Are we going to continue to run the ball at this point? Our offensive play-calling should be geared towards the other team's weakness and the game situation at hand, not McCarthy's pre-planned scripted plays. At this point, if we had to chose who to get rid of between McCarthy and Venturi I would have to go with McCarthy. At least Venturi has the excuse of an injury-riddled defense, McCarthy has nothing. I like a coach who can adjust and call plays on the fly, not one who drives his game plan home at all costs. :casstet:

I can\'t say that I agree with the McCarthy/Venturi statement, but I whole-heartedly agree that the play scripting is rediculous. That kind of thing has been talked about for over a decade and I still don\'t understand it.

I think that from the first play McCarthy needs to be fine-tuning the game plan. What if the first play from scimmage goes for 9 yards? I think any time you have a 2nd and 1 situation, that play needs to be downfield. If it succeeds, great. If not, a good NFL team ought to be able to pick up a 3rd and 1.

The reason it should go this way is because even on the first drive of the game, McCarthy needs to have an urgency about scoring. I understand that he wants to get some long drives going at the beginning of the game to build confidence, but nothing builds confidence like TD\'s and 40 yards drives that stall at the opponent\'s 35 don\'t impress me.

Scripting plays and ignoring the circumstances is just plain stupid. The sad thing is I\'m pretty sure we\'ve seen him do this about 5 times this year.

Don\'t get me wrong, I would like to see the whole coaching staff fired. I was just really making a point with the Venturi/McCarthy statement. At least Venturi was depleted on his resources although he\'s an idiot on defense. McCarthy has no excuses, he has practically the same offense as he had last year but somehow he acts like he\'s getting use to a new scheme and players and needs several games to adjust. I\'m not sure who posted the article about the AFC scouting report on the Saints but it nailed us. It said McCarthy will find what he thinks is a weakness and stick to exploiting that weakness even if it means not adjusting. Maybe someone can help me out and post the link to that article?

All I know is that scripting the first 15-plays sure did work for the 49\'ers. There are a couple of reasons that a coach does this. One of the reasons that the plays are scripted is because the players are less likely to make a mental error, which is more likely to happen at the begining of the game, especially in a hostile enviroment. Secondly, a coach will change the plays if he feels it necessary to do so.

Ok, let me clarify this post. \"Why I think scripting the first 17 plays is ridiculous for the Saints with McCarthy.\" Of course other teams with other schemes work for them. It all depends on how they\'re scripted and what is exploited in scripting them. It also depends on your OC being able to adjust. Both of which I see lacking in this organization with ANY consistency with our OC.

I\'m not anything close to an offensive coordinator, but I think McCarthy relies to much on establishing the rush and trying to set up the pass. Our offense isn\'t a smash mouth offense. We are more of a finesse offense, like the Rams. McCarthy strives to have that perfect balance of the run and the pass. But, the problem is that he is too insistant on establishing the run at the beginning or the game. It\'s obvious that defenses are playing to stop the run with 8-man fronts, so why would anyone want to keep trying to pound the ball in there?

McCarthy can still have balance on offense, but I think he needs to come out throwing and get back to running later on. The wrong playing calling can hurt an offense as much or more than anything.

I don\'t believe that coaches put in stone that they will run 17 plays in a certain order. Play number one, I guarantee is firm. Play two is a check down of what happened on play one. If it was unsuccessful and you\'re 2-10, play two is totally different than if you are 2-3. It\'s like a flow chart. There is an order of plays scripted for scenarios on 1-10, 1-5, 2-long, 2-short, 3-long, 3- short, 4th down. It\'s not like they state, run 17 plays in order regardless of circumstance. They have probably highlighted what they want to see in each of the first two drives and then pick and choose from the chart from that point on.

Billy is correct in that it minimizes early mistakes by focusing on certain plays heavily in practice, and you should see more precise routes and easier reads for your QB since everyone should be on the same page on these plays for sure.

Ok, I\'ll take your word for it that it works that way and that it should lead to fewer mistakes and the like. Consider this from the nola.com:

\"In 53 regular-season games since 2000, the Saints have scored only five touchdowns on their opening possession, only once in their past 21 games. That touchdown came against the San Francisco 49ers in Game 7 last season. Deuce McAllister caught a 4-yard scoring pass from quarterback Aaron Brooks.\"

And if it is a flow chart for different cirumstances I\'ll once again refer to McCarthy as OC. His flow chart needs unclogging. We seem to have a very unimaginative, very antiquated offensive scheme. We need to keep opposing defenses off balance and it seems we let them dictate to us what we\'re going to do instead of us dictating to them what they\'re going to do. Ever notice how much fun defenses seem to have when playing us? Kind of a let-everything-go sort of attitude? It\'s because we let them settle in and then they start to bring it as we fail to adjust. And the more they bring it with success, the more we get bogged down and dig ourselves into a hole that we can\'t seem to climb out of. It\'s like we\'re playing not to lose instead of playing to win.